Lea este artÃculo en español aquÃ.
Last month, BenitoLink’s longtime executive director Leslie David made way for newcomer Peyton Sheets. David, who began her career as a journalist in 1977, will continue working with the nonprofit news organization as a member of its board of directors.Â
To mark the transition, David sat down for an interview about her early interest in journalism, the founding of BenitoLink, the challenges of delivering the news in a rural county, and how she has seen the organization evolve over the years of her stewardship.
BenitoLink: What got you interested in journalism?
David: I’ve been interested in it my whole life. I did some journalism in high school and college. But I remember in fourth grade, taking notes in class in a little spiral notebook about what was happening. I think I’m just curious about things, and journalism is a chance to be in the room and learn in a really unique way.
You were a journalist before the 24-hour news cycle came into existence, when nightly broadcasts and newspapers kept people informed. What is the impact of that change?
It’s changed drastically. You’re describing when the news audience was very much on the same page. There were three or four major networks. So the whole nation was sort of watching the same thing every night. And you think of where we are now, and everybody’s learning from different channels—down different avenues. So you can imagine that you had a population that saw things very similarly compared to a population now that sees things in silos and often very differently.
How do you see this changing the way people consume the news?
The public is finding it on their computers. And I think news, especially national and large regional news, has lost a lot of trust with the public. People are looking for other places to learn and find out what is going on. I think social media is always going to be faster than news. So if you want to know first, social media is where people are going to go.
If you want to know the background, what really happened, what was really said, or what the real figures are, then I think you’re going to go somewhere other than social media. But I think that’s going to be appealing to a certain part of the population, no matter what.
Social media allows you to post anything without fact-checking. How do you think that changes how news is perceived?
I think a lot of people don’t worry about fact-checking. I think they like the excitement and emotional side of social media, and it doesn’t bother them much. I hope that as people mature and take things like their children, their jobs or investments more seriously, they eventually choose to go somewhere they can get facts.
What need did BenitoLink fill?
When I got involved in the listening sessions organized through the Community Foundation, which inspired BenitoLink, I consistently heard across different groups that there was nowhere to get factual information anymore. People were very uncomfortable with our local government having no one overseeing it. Nobody attended the meetings, and many problems were emerging in the community.
That’s when a group of people thought, “Is there some way of creating our own local news organization?” BenitoLink was the most practical solution because it started online-only, the most affordable way to launch a news organization. There was a real sense that something was wrong, and we needed to observe and report on those in power and help residents find out what was happening.
What got you involved in the sessions?
I attended in the ranching sector, and that’s really how I got involved. We discussed the outcomes from the listening sessions, and then this idea came up: Is there some way we could actually build a news organization? In the process, people learned about my background, so I got roped into it. We created a board through the Community Foundation and started studying it.
What was involved in creating it?
We were very fortunate to get a three-year grant through the Knight Foundation. We were able to pay Julie Morris, and she spent time studying what others were doing. That’s really where the nonprofit model came from—looking at the PBS model, which was pretty stable compared to newspapers. Then we started trying to find out who else in the county had ever been a reporter or would get involved, basically seeking out people willing to contribute or take part.
What were the first publications like?
Some of it was really simple. Bob Reid was one of the central people early on, and he lived in San Juan. If something came up in the city council that he thought was interesting, he might write about it. Adam Breen was involved at one time before he took the job at the high school.
We would focus on a simple single topic, and we might have one story a week or one story every two weeks at first. You’d be watching online thinking, “When’s the next story coming?” That’s how it started. It was really slow but an exciting process to watch it grow.
What got it on its feet?
There was a point when we were trying to figure out the financial part: how are we going to keep it going now that the Knight Foundation funding is leaving after three years? That’s when I came in. I wanted to see if I could do it—if there was a way to bring in enough money to keep this thing rolling.
Once we had money coming in, each little step meant you could get another report or another story. It was almost entirely freelance at the time. You may be doing a couple of stories a week, but then you’d sell an ad, or someone would donate a little bit of money, so you can hire someone to do another story, and it just builds on that over time.
What made you think BenitoLink was going to work?
We got feedback gradually, in steps. We’re in a small county, which means when you go to the grocery store, you run into someone who’d say, “Hey, I really liked that story so-and-so did.” I am really proud of our county and its civic engagement. When I’d go to national conferences, I’d get a lot of positive feedback about being a county of only 70,000 people but having so many donors and bringing in so much in the fall campaign. That really shows community interest, and people are always amazed by that.
Funding ends up being central to everything, and Sallie Calhoun, Matt Christiano, and Randy and Rebecca Wolf have put up the match that doubles individual donations for years. We are starting to get others helping too—like Alan and Bonnie Clark—and that makes a world of difference. But on the news and production side, finding qualified people was challenging. It’s a small county, so we had to search around and find people we thought might have the skills or could develop them. That was hard at first—piecing people together who could help cover the county.
How were BenitoLink’s core areas of interest developed?
Gradually. The first part came from our birth. People in the listening sessions were concerned that they had no idea what local government was doing, so that became our primary responsibility. After that, we did surveys that brought out transportation, health, education, and land use. Those were things the public told us, through surveys, that they really wanted us to report on.
When was the first time you felt BenitoLink was having an impact?
When I got more communication from the community—whether on the street, by email, or by phone. If you add that up over a month, it’s amazing how much interchange there is between the community and us—just people wanting us to notice something or look into an issue. And there’s the need for good news—something positive that recognizes something great about our community or an outstanding person who deserves a pat on the back. You’ve got to balance all that.
Can you think of a story that demonstrates BenitoLink’s impact?
There are several over the years. More recently, we did a series on how frustrated people were when trying to deal with the city on building projects. People kept bringing it up to us verbally but were afraid to go on the record, but once we ran that series of stories, they really expressed appreciation for it. They felt like they were heard.
How do you think BenitoLink’s mix of serious and light stories reflects the county’s identity?
Before BenitoLink, if you Googled San Benito County to see what news came up, the only results were press releases about arrests from outside papers like the Mercury News or Monterey Herald. That defined our identity to outer communities as a place where they arrested people.
But after 15 years of publishing, I have had people write to me saying, “I read a lot about the county before I moved here. Thanks to BenitoLink, I got familiar with it.” So I think we are really helping both new residents and longtime residents develop a sense of where they live and hopefully they feel more connected to it.
What are the benefits of BenitoLink’s intern program?
I love that we can pay young people so they leave with real job experience. That’s largely because of Monterey Peninsula Foundation, AT&T and Taylor Farms. We bring in interns from all different backgrounds, which adds depth to our reporting. Having a team that represents our county brings in different ideas from their neighborhoods and a variety of cultural groups. I love their creativity; it’s a positive thing for BenitoLink and for them.
But it can also be a challenge because you’re always dealing with trying to explain the ethics behind journalism, the expectations behind journalism, and that takes a while to absorb.
Besides funding, what is BenitoLink’s largest challenge?
I’d love for us to have more trained, experienced journalists to do deeper reporting. Deep projects take a lot more time, so those stories easily get pushed aside. It’s disappointing that our county and city government are so hard to work with when it comes to getting public information. Because it’s been such a small community for so long, it’s hard for them to understand that there’s an expectation that the public should have the right to the numbers or the background on things. That has frustrated the whole team.
How much of BenitoLink’s charter do you think has been fulfilled?
There are a lot of areas we’re not reporting on enough yet—like education, the courts, and even county history, which we can’t cover as much as we want to. But I am very pleased with how much it’s developed over the years, and I love the fact that we have fresh content daily. So I think we’ve made great progress, but there’s a long way to go. We also have to establish long-term stability through a reserve fund to make transitions easier and economic downturns less threatening.
How do you see your role as you transition to the board?
Well, I’m looking forward to having a little more time for my family. But for BenitoLink, I want to have a presence in the sense of being available, answering questions, and helping us get through it smoothly. If I just bailed, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to share the relationships we’ve built and my experience. So I think it’s important to be around, and of course, I love it anyway, so it’s fine.
I really enjoy the core team we’ve built along with our freelancers and interns. I will miss the day-to-day contact I’ve had with all of them.
I’m excited we found Peyton and that she’s part of BenitoLink. She’s got a lot going for her; she’s very interested in her job, and she has development experience and a strong personal interest in journalism. Her business experience working with nonprofits over the last 10 years will really help BenitoLink.
Related articles
The first BenitoLink article: Welcome to BenitoLink! You Spoke… We Listened! (2012)
A letter from BenitoLink’s new executive director
We need your help. Support local, nonprofit news! BenitoLink is a nonprofit news website covering San Benito County. Our team is committed to this community and to providing essential, accurate information to our fellow residents. Producing local news is expensive, and community support keeps the news flowing. Please consider supporting BenitoLink, San Benito County’s public service nonprofit news.